THE ASSEMBLY IN ITS VISIBLE CHARACTER
[p. 27] THE ASSEMBLY IN ITS VISIBLE CHARACTER
Acts 18: 1 - 11; 1 Corinthians 1: 1; Song of Songs 8: 11, 12; Ecclesiastes 12: 9 - 11
I, desire to say a word about the assembly as it appears publicly. The expression “the invisible church” has become current; it may be taken in various ways; but I had in mind to speak about the visible assembly, that which was once visible, and how it is organised in order that its visibility should be apparent here. I hope with the Lord’s help that I may be able to show something of this feature of the assembly, because, as with other features of the truth, so with the assembly, we have to go back to the beginning in order to see it. We are entitled to look on to the end; indeed, nothing but encouragement can fill our hearts as we do so, because the assembly is seen prophetically in the book of Revelation coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, untrammelled by any human features; not indeed an invisible assembly but a visible one, and one that the Lord can not only identify Himself with in the way of administration, but in the marital relation, so that she is in every way suited to Him; as it says in Ephesians, “not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing”. It is a most glorious prospect that we cannot dwell upon too much; indeed, it is intimated in the expression, “the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former”. The former glory was that which was seen in its administration in an adverse scene; but when she comes out of heaven, she comes into a scene which is not adverse, but which is wholly congenial, whereas the former position of the assembly involves adverse circumstances. She was to maintain that which was due to the Lord here in this world; according to Proverbs, she was to be the virtuous woman. The word ‘virtue’ would have no force [p. 28] were it not that there is that around which is corrupting. Being virtuous, she is seen as withstanding all that is corruptive, and withal maintaining the order that is becoming to the house. She looketh well to the ways of her household. So that in order to get the light that governs our present position, we have to see the assembly as it was in the beginning; that is the test.
Now I apprehend it was under Paul’s ministry that the assembly came out in the way I have been referring to here. She was composed, as an antitype of the tabernacle, of material that was like Christ; and in reading the passage from Canticles I wanted to bring in how at the outset the Lord asserted His claim over that material. If He asserted it then, He asserts it today. The boards of the tabernacle were to stand up in sockets of silver, denoting the redemption work of Christ, and involving therefore His redemption rights, for His redemption work involves His redemption rights. So that in Song of Songs 8: 11 there is undoubtedly a typical allusion to Christ’s rights over those who form the assembly. “Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon”, which signifies that he is “master of a multitude”. He is a master of every one of the redeemed; in fact, He has redemption right over every one, over the whole creation. Paul says, “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living”. He has redemption rights over all, so that it is a question with us whether we have admitted those rights. He is “master of a multitude”. Now in being master of a multitude, He has in mind being master of assemblies. The expression occurs in Ecclesiastes 12: 12; it is an expression that applies to Christ. He is a master of assemblies as well as being master of a multitude. I need not say that the former is more what is suited to His heart than the latter. The thought of a multitude is not [p. 29] a divine thought; the multitude must be set in order; it must be regulated, brought into such form as is controllable. You have it illustrated in the gospels the multitude was to sit down in fifties and hundreds according to the Lord’s directions.
Now in speaking of Ecclesiastes I wanted to enlarge on the word ‘Preacher’. The word has good authority for it, signifying not only one who preaches, but one who forms assemblies; he not only announces the gospel of the mind of God, but has in view the formation of companies or assemblies. Now I am sure you will not fail to be interested in seeing this as applying to the Lord. It is well to have Him before us in the varied ways in which He carries on the work of the word of God at the present time. Presently He will take up administration of another kind, and rule the nations. There can be no doubt that “master of a multitude” refers to His mastery of the nations. He is not only King of the Jews, but King of kings and Lord of lords. He has supreme rights everywhere; He will take them up and carry them out, so that the house of Jacob is brought in and set up. God never gives up any thought that He has given expression to. He had a garden at the beginning, and He will have a garden at the end on this earth; Christ will present that garden in suitability to God. There shall be no enemy in it; those who exalt themselves, who walk in the garden of God in the pride of their heart, all such will be removed from it, and the will of God will prevail. It is a most encouraging thought in regard to this earth. The law will be in men’s hearts and in men’s minds. What a wonderful thing it will be when men’s thoughts and affections are regulated by the law of God. Christ can do all that; He can bring it about The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. How perfect is the result of Christ’s work.
[p. 30] Now I come to the passage I read in Acts. The Lord is the Master of multitudes, and in sending Paul to Corinth He had this in mind, that the multitude should be instructed. Paul came to Corinth and began in a very simple and humble way; he allied himself with Aquila and Priscilla, who were of the same craft, tent-makers. It is a very suggestive word, for in truth his mission was that of spiritual tent-making; there was that to be reared up which should correspond with the tabernacle in the wilderness, and you can understand what a service the apostle had at Corinth. Their ordinary craft suggested their spiritual craft. He was a craftsman of a spiritual kind, wiser than those employed by Moses, taking account of the state of Corinth, its prestige in the world, what it stood for in the world of arts and sciences; he came there as a wise architect. You do not look for much architecture in a tent; it is not intended to display the arts and sciences. The tabernacle in the wilderness suggested nothing of that kind. There was that inside which was exceedingly precious typically, yet outside all was humble and insignificant. So, dear brethren, that is the mark of the assembly period; outwardly, smallness and insignificance; inwardly and on the principle of faith, all the display and the architecture and the grandeur that any heart could desire. The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. The apostle was here a tent maker, and in regard to the attitude of the world towards him, he was the filth and offscouring of all things; thus he came to Corinth. The Spirit does not tell us how many tents he made, whether he was a master or a journeyman tent-maker. He allied himself with Aquila and Priscilla; he did not join a trade union, if there was such, but it is significant that he allied himself with these two. His trade alliance was confined to two [p. 31] Christians, Aquila and Priscilla. It was a very happy companionship. Priscilla was a sister of no mean qualities; sometimes she is mentioned before her husband, indicating her spirituality, so that one can understand that the apostle had most congenial companionship with those two believers. They had come from the west, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome; they were distinguished as Jews, and were not yet identified with the new position.
The apostle is occupied with the work of God. He reasoned with the Jews; they refused to listen. They had their opportunity. The Lord had His rights in regard to them; He had died for them, and now Paul goes into the house of Justus, who worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. It says further that Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house and that many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptised. Not only individuals, believed but the heads of households. The Lord was Master of the multitude at Corinth, and the multitudes believed. I do not know anything more encouraging than that the Lord is acquainted with all the circumstances of the service. “The Lord knoweth them that are his”. He appears to Paul in a vision by night, and says, “I have much people in this city”. He says nothing yet about the assembly, but He says “much people”. He says, “No man shall set on thee to hurt thee”. “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace”. The Preacher says there is a time to be silent and a time to speak, and the time for speaking had arrived. Paul was to speak, and he did speak. In the opening of his first letter he says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. That was his deliberate determination in reaching this multitude at Corinth. They belonged to Christ: “I have much people”.
[p. 32] It is not sufficient that the Lord knows the heart, but He must have it, and He must have the company formed of such material as is suitable for the tabernacle. The will of God must prevail. “I delight in the law of God after the inward man”. Do you? If you do, you are suitable; that is the principle of it; one that is entirely subservient to the will of God, and not only subservient, but delights in it. So that apostle says, “Present your bodies ... which is your reasonable service”. Paul continued at Corinth a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them. If we are to be brought into the assembly, into the principle of assemblies; that is, if we are to answer to God locally in regard of the assembly, we must be taught the word of God. What is the word of God? It is in the line of His will, of His counsel, but particularly of His mind and of His will. Not only must I listen to it, but I have to be taught.
Now the result was that the assembly was brought together, and the apostle leaves them. “Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers”. There it is given into hands that are responsible for the fruit. What kind of fruit did they bring forth at Corinth? Very poor fruit. The first letter discloses the kind of fruit that the Lord received at Corinth. I do not say there was no fruit; there was fruit; some of the worthy men and women are mentioned. “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me”. Where am I in regard of the obligation resting upon me? The Lord enlightens me and furnishes me and leaves me in responsibility. How is it, dear brethren, in regard of the responsibility that rests upon you and me consequent upon the light that has come to our souls from Christ, all that is bound up with the assembly? Is there a yield for Christ? “Solomon must have a thousand”. Christ is entitled to it, and there shall be a reckoning [p. 33] with every one of us. What does it yield for Him, all that is expended on your soul? Is He not looking for a yield? There is to be a yield, a result. Corinth produced a very poor one, but not altogether bad, thank God. Through the diligence of this workman whom we may call an under-master of assemblies, those that have been formed under his ministry have come at last under the will of God. “If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God”. He was diligent, and so a state of things was brought about that answered to Christ; 2 Corinthians 10: 5, 6, “when your obedience is fulfilled”.
The former of assemblies would be concerned about the right form of words, that the truth of God might be presented in a right form. It is not becoming that the things of God should be expressed in a loose or profane form, so the preacher was wise; he looked at things from that angle. One would be concerned about it; the enemy is guileful and the man of God must be thoroughly furnished; he must be fully prepared. So it says the preacher was wise, so “he still taught the people knowledge”. He kept on teaching; it was necessary. The teaching must go on; we have to be brought over the same ground again and again, and the wise teacher does that. Paul remained eighteen months to teach the people; they needed to be taught, and he did not stop there, but taught them in two long letters. In the first letter he tells them the kind of words he employed; he did not attempt anything like oratory at all. His letters are weighty, they said, but his bodily presence weak and contemptible. But they were converted all the same. It was a question of the result. If they talked about his apostleship, he says, You are a proof of it. He says, I do not want your faith to stand in the wisdom of men. He was a former of assemblies; he preached in such a way that [p. 34] laid a right foundation in the souls of his hearers. The preacher “set in order many proverbs”. There are said to be three thousand of them; perhaps not more than a tenth of them is recorded, but he spake three thousand, and they were all available to his people. He served his own generation in that way among others, when he sought out and set in order many proverbs. The nation had a spiritual vocabulary, and I think that is a very good thing. The Lord Jesus spoke from heaven to Paul in the language that is called Hebrew. There is a meaning in that: it was suited to his past; he should have His thoughts in that language out of heaven. The Spirit employs language to suit us, but selects His own words, and sets them in order. He speaks every language under heaven, but He selects His own words; hence the preacher set out many proverbs as the heritage of the people of God.
Have we not these, dear brethren? We have, and one would be very exercised not to take from them. “The preacher sought to find out acceptable words”. You would wonder how he found time for it, to find out such words as should be suited for divine things. “That which was written was upright, even words of truth”. He had wrought to find them out, set them in order, and now he says what is written down is upright, words of truth. Thank God for that. Nothing can equal the beauty of the Scriptures; they nourish the soul and regulate the mind. “The words of the wise are as goads”. I am not the only one (he says), there are others, and their words not only please the mind; they convict the conscience. They are not smooth words that never touch the conscience. Where the Holy Spirit has His place, as He has in measure, thank God, there is a form of words that affects the conscience, “and as nails fastened”. They are words that are unalterable: you can rest in them; you can hang your thoughts [p. 35] on them; they convey the mind of God unalterably.
It is an honourable attribute that certain proverbs of Solomon were searched out in Hezekiah’s day; there were men who sought out these things and put them together. They are “given from one shepherd”. There are those to whom the word of God came, but remember that all has come from one Shepherd. It was the Shepherd’s heart that had devised them, in order that the saints might be held together in the unity of the Spirit. Woe be to him who would have it otherwise, who has not a shepherd’s heart. The one Shepherd has the one flock before Him.
I wanted to show how things were set up, how the Lord brought about an assembly by these methods that I have been setting before you, so that a company of men and women were set together in Corinth with the mind of God, set up like the tabernacle of old, the boards standing upright in the sockets of silver, bound together by bars. The two corner boards, where a break would be apt to occur, were coupled at the bottom and at the top, to one ring, so that they stand. That is what the Lord brought about. There was at the outset a full expression of the work of the Lord as the great “master of assemblies”.